Arburg Head of Marketing says that plastics industry can be the solution, not the problem

Arburg’s Head of Marketing and Corporate Communication has said that the company is fully committed to supporting a circular economy.

Dr Christoph Schumacher has revealed Arburg’s view towards the future of the plastics industry, saying that members of the value chain can work with consumers to be the solution, not the problem.

ARBURG GmbH + Co KG

He said: “We want to contribute, as far as it is in our power, to the solution of this serious and possibly most important problem of our industry in the next decades. We are convinced that this challenge cannot be faced by individual members of the value-added chain alone.

“We as machine manufacturers can help develop new processing techniques and procedures. A classic historical issue is multi=component processing. It shows how challenges create new techniques, and sometimes new techniques trigger the development of new products.”

“In my view, Arburg is deeply involved in Design for Recycling. We firmly believe that in the next 20 to 30 years the production of plastics will be also oriented towards aspects of recycling, and this is where machine manufacturers are an important factor.”

“We must ensure the production of these parts, and all the time we must bear in mind the common goal of production efficiency for our customers, which is to manufacture resource-efficient products with as little material and as little as possible.”

“We hope circular economy will improve the image of plastics. In our opinion, plastics as a reusable material are still the material of the 21st century. But we also see the external framework parameters.”

“I think a major problem is the idea that plastics are waste products. Plastic materials do not belong in the oceans or ditches but in a recycling chain. Mechanical engineering is an enabler, it enables recycling of plastics.”

“You can argue over the need of packaging a cucumber. But you cannot argue about the necessity of plastics in medical technology and in everything affecting people. In this application everyone demands the highest quality product, for instance, when it comes to infusions or stents.”

“What is hope for is that the plastics sector, from material manufacturing to the consumers, finds a common definition, that we recognise circular economy as a common goal and that we then find our position ourselves correspondingly.”